Documentary filming in Merapoh caves

From 19-24 Feb 2013, KL Motion Picture Company were filming a documentary for part of the Save Merapoh Caves campaign. Called Misi Merapoh, the object was to portray the Merapoh caves, to show how beautiful and interesting they are.

The first day was shot in Gua Tahi Bintang. With the filming lights the cave looked even more spectacular.

The colours and the bedding showed up clearly

In the evening we went to Gua Seribu Cerita. This is the cave with many rock drawings.

The next day we went to Gua Hari Malaysia. On the way to the cave we found an elephant jaw and leg bone.

Filming in the cave was very slow and we got totally wet in the low section. We all got very, very cold (hard to believe we were in Malaysia!). Also the cold wind from the waterfall made it worse, so we went as far as the first waterfall, then left.

Protecting the camera from drips -

and there were many drips -

On the 3rd day of filming we went to Gua Jinjang Pelamin. We filmed in the entrance, then had a lunch break before going straight to the Twin Towers.

We put a rope on one of the climbs, and this is the "3 man belay"!!! -

Filming the guano which is home to many cockroaches -

I found the bones of a cave racer. See more on xxx.

Other inhabitants -

 Scorpion, and spider with egg sac

A Bufo toad, and a dead fruit bat -

The next day we went to Gua Air Mata Dayang and Gua Kolam Biru. The guys constructed a raft to enable the cameraman to go across the lake and into the cave. I swam this a couple of weeks earlier.

Juki also had a look underwater

Filming at Kolam Biru -

On the final day of filming, the object was to record the team looking for a new cave. We went to Bukit Tekong as Seni knew of a cave in a part of the hill we hadn't yet looked at.

 It was a nice area, with lots of flora such as Monophyllaea, Begonias, ferns etc. We named on cave Gua Tekong Taman from the garden outside.

Inside was a skin from a King Cobra, 

There were also some bones, possibly porcupine -

I also saw a cave racer, it was the largest one I've seen in the Merapoh caves -

The cave had several entrances and an upper level. Looking down on the entrance from the upper chamber -

Next to it is Gua Tekong Terowong, which is a tunnel through the hill and is about 30 m long. Inside were the bones of a wild boar.

And a few toads

Tunnel back door -

At the back of the hill we only found one short cave, named Gua Tekong Jodoh.

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See my blog of the finished film, Misi Merapoh, it was shown on RTM TV2 on 21October 2013.
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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Wild boar skeleton in Merapoh cave

When caving in Merapoh in early Feb, we found a porcupine skull in a cave. Two weeks later we found a wild boar skeleton. It was in Gua Tekong Terowong, a tunnel of about 30 m that goes through the hill.

The wild boar or pig, Sus scrofa is a common animal in Malaysia and we often see its footprints around cave entrances as well as muddy areas where the pigs have been digging.

These are the bones "neatly" arranged by someone!

This is the lower jaw -

There should be 11 teeth on each side

 

 

See more on documentary filming in Merapoh caves.

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Update -
When I visited the cave in July 2013 I found that all the bones had gone.

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Porcupine skull in Merapoh cave

I occasionally see porcupine in caves in Malaysia. The most recent sighting was of 2 porcupine in Gua Tahi Bintang in Merapoh, Pahang. These were the Asiatic Brush-tailed Porcupine (Atherurus macrourus).

On 3 Feb 2013 in Gua Ara Babi in Merapoh, we found the bones of an animal in a small passage. The guys looking at the bones -

Part of the skeleton was already cemented in place but the skull and teeth were loose.

It is a porcupine (Family Hystricidae) but we can't determine the species, although there is a possibility it is the brush tailed as they are in other caves in the area.

In the same passage were some droppings, but I don't know what left them!

More photos of the skull and teeth -

The Asian porcupines have 20 teeth. Their dental formula is 1.0.1.3 =
Incisors 1/1 Canines 0/0, Premolars 1/1 Molars 3/3 (one half of the mouth) .

The incisors

                                                                                                   
The teeth were already loose. This photo shows one of the incisors pulled out to reveal the whole length -                                

The lower molars (a back one missing) -

close up -

 

The upper molars  -                                                                                                                        

The back molars missing on both sides

The teeth are quite orange in colour, but this is a trait of porcupines. Despite having powerful gnawing incisors, porcupines are herbivorous, eating fruit, roots, and bulbs, though they may gnaw on bones for calcium. They use caves for shelter.

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Caves around Gua Musang, Kelantan

The town of Gua Musang in Kelantan, Malaysia is surrounded by limestone hills. The most famous cave is also called Gua Musang and is in the hill right behind the railway station.

In 2005 I spent a few days caving with some friends from Ipoh and we took time to look for other caves in the area. There are many listed in my Cave register but none seem to have been documented otherwise.

We stayed in chalets in Taman Ethnobotani. The park has some small limestone outcrops used for rock climbing and abseiling. There is a short tunnel cave

We went to the small town of Pulai, south of Gua Musang and to Princess Mountain, Bukit Tok Cu.

At the time, a temple was being built up on the hill. Apparently in 1984 a man had a vision of stairs being built and in 1997 the building was started - concrete steps lead up to a small Taoist temple, Gung Ju San.

There is an upper level cave passage and you can look down into a big chamber.

We looked at other hills in the area but I didn't take many photos (I was still new to digital cameras in those days!). In Gua Sidang we found some charcoal cave drawings, Jawi writing and Chinese graffiti.

Next cave we visited I named Bombed Cave - apparently it was bombed by the British during the Emergency, as they thought Communists were hiding inside. [This was possibly 1950 when there was a lot of fighting in the area, e.g. the battle of Ulu Semur]
Some enormous slabs had fallen from the roof at some time.

The cave is a large chamber with a small stream running through. There were lots of sacks of guano.

We nicknamed this hill (Gua Serai) in Gua Musang as Mangy Dog hill!

In the Chin Teck plantation we went to Gua Batu Hijau

There are fruit and insect bats and lots of brown stains

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Merapoh Croatian expedition in Descent

I wrote a short piece on the September 2012 Croatian caving expedition to Merapoh, in Pahang, Malaysia for the international caving magazine Descent.

It was published in  Issue 230, Feb/Mar 2013. To order a copy go to Descent ordering.
Descent is a UK magazine.